and we'll have a summertime beach all the way up into sometimes november or even december because we still haven't had a big northwest welcome in and once that first swell comes in then it erodes away the sand and becomes a wintertime beach but you know december that's winter it takes a long time for sometimes these sand particles to get ripped away now in the wintertime this these sand bars they're formed via rip currents okay so we got to talk a little bit about rip currents i uh i've dealt with a lot of rip currents i've seen a lot of people in rip currents i've been in rip currents i use rip currents to my advantage um i just want to talk about safety for a moment about rip currents so let's let's take a moment away from the beach but really how you connect it in is that rip currents are bringing this sand out creating these sand bars okay let's talk about safety though so what you have here is a little diagram you got the ocean out here and you've got the shoreline here so here's where you are hanging out the ocean these strong waves are bringing water towards the shore without without rip currents the water would continue to flow up onto shore and into the residential neighborhoods and onto the streets in the parking lots right but because of rip currents they're taking that extra water that's being brought in by big waves and taking it back out creating a nice balanced situation okay now this guy here happens to be stuck in a rip current and pushed out to sea um and what happens is because this flow is going out it's ripping away at the sandbar and pulling more and more sand away pulling sand away but building this sandbar in the middle okay now i've got this video we got this guy named dr beach okay um he's a funny guy i hope you enjoy the video i'm gonna let you exp have him explain rip currents to you um and then we'll come back and talk a little bit about the video all right so here you go enjoy dr beach where do you think the safest place to go swimming would be a b or c i think it's the b and why do you say b because it looks count probably b because it's the calming spot i probably say b oh my gosh that's where the rip current is that would be going right in the jaws of the rip that carry far offshore and i hope you're a good swimmer to get back oh really well unfortunately that's where the rip current is and pull you far offshore very dangerous place to go oh yes [Music] most people don't know how to recognize a rip current and if caught and ripped don't know how to get out of it that's why we created this video i'm dr steven leatherman professor at florida international university and i've been studying rip currents for many years over 50 000 people per year are caught in rips and have to be rescued this gives you an idea of how dangerous rips really are what is your greatest fear in the ocean anything scare you in the ocean shocks shirts a shark most people think of a shark beachgoers often mention jellyfish and crabs as marine hazards but they're not real killers on the united states beaches just a nuisance waves are so much fun for plane you can see how they push the water up the beach when they break the return flow of the water down the beach is called backwash which is commonly called undertow when the pool is strong imagine this toy bear as a person that is being pulled seaward to a beachgoer caught in a strong backwash and slammed by an over topping wave this certainly feels like undertow people often confuse undertow which is actually a strong backwash and rip currents rip currents are like rivers in the sea that carry you beyond their breaking waves into deep water but how can we spot rips a classic mushroom shape on signs is rarely seen in nature rip currents come in all sizes and shapes they are much harder to see from the ground which is a beachgoers view of the water what's the greatest hazard at a beach when the backwash flows off the beach in a concentrated way to form a strong current that can carry you far offshore into deep water this happens when you have a hole in the sand bar rips flow seaward at all depths at speeds typically two to three feet per second beach scores will be pulled out past the breakers before the current dissipates we marked a weak rip current with red fluorescent dye which otherwise would not have been apparent dr rob brander my colleague in australia has marked one with purple dye note that the dye plume is being pulled rapidly offshore by the now visible current there are two strategies for escaping a rip you can swim left or right but you do not want to swim against the longshore current as it can pull you back into the offshore flowing rip the second approach is to float let the rip take you off shore and then swim back diagonally to the beach many times the rip will curl back on itself and bring you to the sandbar do not swim against the rip current or panic because this is what causes people to drown even good swimmers one more thing you need to know about waves to understand rip currents on most beaches the waves vary in size they crescendo up and down surfers will sit on their boards waiting for the biggest wave in order to get the best ride the bigger the wave the more powerful and stronger the rip therefore when the biggest waves break on the beach the current will suddenly become stronger it will pulse how do you spot rip currents sometimes they are fairly obvious to the trained eye and other times even professional lifeguards can find it very hard to spot them the problem is that all rip currents don't look the same here's a rip in southern california that is distinguished by the murkier water flowing offshore the rip in sydney australia appears as darker calmer water and frankly an inviting place to go swimming but the lack of wave action is because of the deep channel through which the current is flowing here are some more rips one from fire island new york looks just like a wave coming from an odd angle while the big rips at ocean beach san francisco are real killers i think this beach should be called rip killer beach and then maybe people wouldn't go into the water rip currents on some beaches can occur on moderate wave conditions waves only two to three feet high and the weather is idyllic warm sunny and the wind is calm those waves are generated by offshore hurricanes and tropical storms hundreds of miles away approximately 100 people per year drowning rip currents in the united states this is far more than people who are killed by hurricanes tornadoes or lightning strikes during an average year don't become a statistic far too many people are drowning on surf beaches and rip current drowning is preventable before going into the ocean know how to swim and swim near a lifeguard if at all possible scan the surf and learn how to read the waves so you can detect these killer currents we want you to have fun and be safe don't get ripped [Music]